


Even If You Are A Shitty Guardian As Long As You Try Your Best Your Wards Will Acknowledge And Love You

by TheSimplestOfAllSocks



Category: Gintama
Genre: Hijikata trying his best, Hurt Kagura, M/M, Sad Gintoki, Shinpachi can fight
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-13
Updated: 2018-03-13
Packaged: 2019-03-30 22:37:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13961529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSimplestOfAllSocks/pseuds/TheSimplestOfAllSocks
Summary: He wondered if he ought to get up and lend his hand but a voice that sounded suspiciously like Umibouzu hissed at him that he had done enough. He could not help but agree. He would only be getting in everyone’s way. He had already messed things up enough. He had already hurt Kagura. (Edited)





	Even If You Are A Shitty Guardian As Long As You Try Your Best Your Wards Will Acknowledge And Love You

Gintoki sat slumped against one of the many black cars parked outside a warehouse. Various members of the Shinsengumi could be seen moving about.  Each was performing their assigned duties diligently. As his eyes followed one such officer clad in black uniform hurrying towards another car with bandages and bottled water in his hands, Gintoki felt a wave of uselessness wash over him for the second time that day. He wondered if he ought to get up and lend his hand but a voice that sounded suspiciously like Umibouzu hissed at him that he had done enough. He could not help but agree. He would only be getting in everyone’s way. He had already messed things up enough. He had already hurt Kagura.  
  
The job had been simple if not a little shady. They just had to make a delivery. The place of the delivery was the shady part of the job. He had been asked to deliver a box a few miles away from civilization in an abandoned warehouse. “Yorozuya no longer delivers white powder, old man, “ Gintoki had eyed the box suspiciously.

  
“Or anything that might potentially detach our limbs from our bodies. We are done with those too,” Shinpachi had hastily added as he had placed the tea cup in front of the man who seemed to be from a rich family if his clothes were anything to go by. But it was the rich who slowly grew mad as they sat idly at home. Some might try dyeing their hair a different shade while others might get their kicks from joining the terrorists.

  
The man had just smiled an unsettling smile and said, “Oh, you misunderstand, Yorozuya-san. This is but a gift for my servant’s daughter. You see, his daughter is very ill and so he took a leave wanting to tend to her and assist his wife in his village. But this lad is way too forgetful, I tell you. In his hurry, he left this gift that I told him to take along with him.” The man had then opened the box to reveal a doll clearly worth a lot of money. “Poor boy is already more than half way there. It would take too much time  for him to come here and then make his way back. He was so elated on receiving this. Kept thanking me and saying how much his daughter would adore this. We can’t break their hearts now, can we?”  
  
Gintoki had carefully picked up the doll and examined it. Wariness was something that came naturally to someone who led a life like his. A new mirror might just have a purple haired stalker behind it and pissing on a mound of dirt might change him into another mammal. Anything was possible. After having thoroughly inspected the doll, he had placed it back in the box. He had ended up accepting the job.  
  
With Tama gone with Gengai on some bullshit quest for finding the perfect screwdriver (he had had enough of those too) and Catherine being sick, he had seen Otose overworking herself more times than he felt comfortable with. He had nonchalantly offered his help but had been refused and asked to pay his rent instead. Gintoki knew feeding the kids and paying for the bills of his apartment could not have been easy on her purse.  The reduced number of customers due to insufficient staff wasn’t helping the matter. The man had offered him a pretty sum of money for the job and so he had found himself making his way to the warehouse with his two kids.  
  
Things had gone south pretty fast. One moment they had been entering the warehouse and the next moment they had been dodging a wave of kunai hurtling towards their way.  Gintoki had dropped the box and whipped out his bokken in record time. He looked around for any signs of a blond kid.  He had always known that Uzumaki kid never liked him. Just because Gintoki had managed to land the black haired pretty boy in his show and he hadn’t in his own must have filled him with jealously. Or maybe it was Burrito-kun. Yes, Naruto-kun was a angel, it was Burrito who needed to learn some respect. In the end it had turned out that the author wasn’t a big fan of crossovers.  
  
Around sixty men had emerged from behind the various crates and boxes lying around. Gintoki had shifted a little closer to Shinpachi and Kagura. The fight had been hard and exhausting. They had been vastly outnumbered. Gintoki had slashed open anyone who had came closer to them.  Even though they had been fighting hard it had seemed like Gintoki’s team was taking more hits than the opposite party. Gintoki had looked behind him after some time when he couldn’t feel the presence of the other two as close as he would have liked and saw that during the course of the battle they had somehow ended up getting separated. He had been trying to locate Shinpachi when he had heard the gunshot followed by a scream that was unmistakably Kagura’s.  
  
His blood had run cold and his eyes had quickly darted towards the source of the sound. He had seen Kagura crumpled on the ground with her hand pressed on the bullet wound in her leg and a man making his way towards her with a gun in his hand.  
  
Gintoki had turned to run towards Kagura to protect her but the enemies near him had taken advantage of his distraction and had already been upon him. He had tried his hardest to fight them all off but it had not been enough. He had then decided to run towards Kagura anyway. He had to do something if he didn’t want her to end up with a hole in her head. His run had been cut short when someone managed to land a hit on his back with their sword. He had gone down after that. He hadn’t cared. During the fight the men had revealed that they were after him. They wanted some kind of information about the inner workings of the Kubukicho’s factions. That meant they weren’t going to kill him. The kids were an entirely different matter though.  
  
He had seen the man lift his gun and pointing it at Kagura’s head as he struggled to get up. The men had landed on him preventing him from doing anything. As the man had been about to pull the trigger Gintoki saw Kagura looking at him with a strange expression as if she had been bidding him goodbye and at that moment Gintoki had felt his heart clench in the most painful way possible. He had only experienced that kind of a pain a few times in his life and he had fought everyday to prevent himself from feeling it again. He had failed. Again.  
  
Out of nowhere Shinpachi had been upon that bastard knocking him down with his own sword but not before he had pulled the trigger. Gintoki  could only watch in horror as the bullet made its way towards his kid. He had wanted to scream but the sound of the gunshot had already been followed by another scream. Kagura’s scream. Shinpachi had tried to yell something but his voice got drowned by the entrance of the warehouse exploding.  
   
“This is the Shinsengumi. Do not move!” a familiar gruff voice pierced through the air.  
  
The Demonic Vice-Commander Hijikata Toushirou had entered the scene. His eyes had widened fractionally at the scene that had presented itself before him. Something had shifted in his expression as his gaze had fallen on Kagura and Gintoki who were both lying in the pools of their blood and the bruised and battered Shinpachi who had been still trying to hold back two men on his own. “Leave a few and kill the rest,” he had ordered as he had unsheathed his sword. Everything after that had been a blur. Gintoki remember being tried to be used as a hostage but he had gotten himself out of that situation with a just a few more cuts. He had quickly started to see the ground sway beneath his feet as more blood poured out of the cut on his back. After that he had been carried out by someone before he had lost consciousness.  
  
Gintoki banged his head against the car he had been sitting against. “We just patch you up and then I find you trying to give yourself a concussion. Stop being so troublesome,” Hijikata said as he slipped next to him on the ground.  
   
Gintoki didn’t feel like speaking so he just looked at Hijikata. “She’ll live. Shimura was able to mess up that fucker’s aim in time. She still got shot in her arm from such a close distance so it will take her some time to recover.” All Gintoki offered in reply was a nod.  
   
Hijikata looked at Gintoki and let out a sigh. “Stop doing that.”  
  
“Doing what?” Gintoki asked tersely.  
  
“Beating yourself up for what happened. You tried to do everything you could. I saw you wriggling on the ground covered in your blood trying to crawl to her.”  
  
Gintoki let out a hollow laugh. “If I hadn’t brought them here none of this would have happened. Why am I even letting them follow a middle aged guy with an affinity for trouble around?”  
  
It wasn’t like Gintoki wasn’t used to seeing injured children. A significant part of his life had been spent wandering around dead bodies after all. He had seen the bodies of both kids and old people. Even looted them in order to survive. It was just that Kagura and Shinpachi were _his_ kids. His responsibility.    
  
And they paid the price for that every day.  
   
What kind of a guardian couldn’t even provide his wards with sufficient food and keep them safe? He had always known that he would make a shitty father. But even the most despicable fathers don’t intentionally let their kids tag along to somewhere where they might get shot. And this wasn't even the first time.  
  
He felt a hand land on his shoulder. “Gintoki, listen to me. These kids chose to follow you-"  
  
_Well, Shinpachi also chose to be an otaku and Kagura chose to get here by clinging to a spaceship._  
  
“They want to be with you.”  
  
_Shinpachi wanted to be with Pandemonium too. It was a larva, Hijikata-kun._  
   
“If they had thought that you weren’t good enough for them they would have already left.”  
  
_A larva is good enough for him._  
  
“They are smarter than what you give them credit for.  And hundred times more stronger than you think.”  
  
_I never doubted that._  
  
“Don’t push them away now. Just trust them,” Hijikata finished, his eyes gleaming with worry and affection.  
   
He then looked towards his walkie talkie.  
   
“Yeah, you idiot. I can’t believe you think I can’t take a few bullets. I am a Yato. I am much stronger than you bugs. I am going to kick your permy ass when I get off this bed. You can bring me loads of sukonbu if you wish for some mercy,” a voice came from it which sounded suspiciously like its owner was crying.  
  
“If you think of it, I was the only one standing while you two were lazing around so that officially makes me the strongest of us three,” another wet voice came through.  
  
“Oh hush. I don’t remember you being the one to defeat the King of the Night.” Gintoki joined in and if his voice was damper than it usually was then he was blaming that on the cold night.  
  
“You had help!” the boy shouted from the other end.  
  
Hijikata saw something soften in Gintoki’s expression. “I guess I had a little help,” he answered.  
  
“Well,” Hijikata said lighting a cigarette “Why don’t I treat you all to dinner tonight once I clear all this up? It was because of China here that I was able to see Sougo with such a hilariously distressed look on his face. I even clicked a photo if you lot wanna see it.”  
  
“Hijikata-san,” an unexpected third voice came from the other side “Please tell me where you are so I can come and put an end to your existence.”  
  
Gintoki for once just sat there quietly, smiling, with Hijikata’s hand around his shoulders as he listened to the idiots around him bickering with each other.

**Author's Note:**

> I went ahead and edited this thing. It's still kind of shitty and the English Language is still being a jerk to me. Feedback will be appreciated! Thank you for reading.


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